April Fool's!
by Reasons Lost
Summary: Sam and Lara spend their April Fool's Days a little bit differently after what happened to them on Yamatai.
Two April Fool's days had passed since Yamatai. Sam had loved April Fool's before. Her friends had been less fond of the day, partially because of her enthusiasm for it. She would spend the entire day setting cups of ice water over doors set slightly ajar, serving drinks with mentos frozen into the ice cubes, and swapping the covers of every hardback book she found.

Of all her friends, Lara took her pranks the best. She seemed completely unflappable, immovable. Lara Croft was untouchable. It actually drove Sam to try just that much harder to get under her skin. It seemed impossible. Even putting chili powder in the tin where Lara kept her tea leaves had only provoked Lara into insisting Sam drink some of it herself, and replace the tea she'd ruined.

It had become a tradition through their university years, and Sam had slowly escalated it each year. Her other friends still suffered, of course, but Lara took the brunt of Sam's mischievous tendencies for them. Something they often thanked her for, making good and sure Sam heard them when they did so.

So it made her sad when, after all they went through on that island, Sam found herself planning ideas for their first April Fool's day back home only to realise that she couldn't do most of them anymore. After what Lara had gone through for her, surprise dousings with ice water wouldn't be as funny as they had been, waking her with firecrackers would start a panic, and moving her things around would make her anxious.

Sam had shelved her plans. She didn't even make the token effort to annoy her old friends. She didn't particularly feel like going anywhere; crowds and strangers made her anxious. So instead, the pair stayed in, and it became a new tradition. Instead of tricks and jokes, they made dinner together, and curled up together on the couch to blot the entire mad world out for one another. It was nice, Sam loved it, but it wasn't like before. It wasn't like before, and she missed how things had been, and especially how her and Lara had been. The island had changed them, and not being able to dump water on her girlfriend was an oddly poignant reminder of that.

Naturally, on their second April Fool's since the island, she ended up broaching the subject to Lara. She regretted doing so right away; Lara spent the rest of the night quiet, either lost in thought or put out by what Sam had said. In an effort to make things right that night Sam had slipped Lara out of her shirt and rubbed her tense shoulders and muscular back until she'd fallen to sleep. It made her feel better to see Lara comfortable and content, and when she slipped into bed beside her sleep came easily.

Those were the thoughts in Sam's mind as she drove home from the shops on their third April Fool's day off of Yamatai; bouquet of flowers and box of fried chicken in the passenger seat. She was set on making the day comfortable for Lara, an entire year later she still felt guilty for what she'd said before.

She let herself in with her key, discarded her shoes, and found that Lara was nowhere to be seen. The lights were off, and the house glowed with candlelight. Sam set the chicken on the coffee table beside a tall, red candle that stood upright in the center of the wooden surface. She scanned the couch where she'd expected to find her favourite bookworm, and and then to the floor, where a fine trail of rose petals caught her eye.

She took the bait, following them down the hallway, past several more of the tall, thin, red candles. Their bedroom door was just slightly ajar, and she could smell incense in the air. She lifted the bouquet of flowers to her chest, and grinning madly, stepped inside.

Only to be doused in ice water, emptied bucket crashing to the floor beside her. She breathed sharp and quickly, shocked, and stared at the bed where Lara lay on her side, dressed in her pyjamas and giggling like an idiot. Sam threw the bouquet onto the floor, and dived onto the bed, still sopping wet, to exact her revenge.


End file.
